Craigslist a crime magnet, says rival Oodle

Oodle Inc., a San Mateo company that runs an online classified marketplace through Facebook, says a report it commissioned found classified giant Craigslist.org has become a "scary" place that attracts criminals by allowing people to post and respond to ads anonymously.

"In the age of social media when almost everyone has a Facebook profile, why continue to meet up with anonymous buyers and sellers when there’s a better way?" wrote Oodle co-founder and CEO Craig Donato in a self-promotional blog post oozing with concern.

San Francisco-based Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster responded hotly with his own blog post saying that the the 330 crimes that Oodle cites in connection with Craigslist "sounds scary until you compare that number to the 570 million classified ads posted by 100 million or more U.S. craigslist users during that same time span."

"Crime is exceedingly rare on craigslist in part because criminals know that the electronic trail they leave there helps ensure their capture, and CL is unusually helpful and cooperative with law enforcement," Buckmaster wrote.